The Role of Class and Gender politics on Working-Class Women's position in the UK Factual Television Industry

这项研究的目的，以及这个项目对知识的最初贡献是为了了解阶级和性别对英国工薪阶层女性在电视真人秀行业中扮演的角色的影响。我的研究问题是：性别和阶级政治在工薪阶层女性进入英国电视行业的努力以及她们在那里建立职业生涯的努力中扮演了什么角色？工薪阶层女性的职业生涯如何受到她们的性别和社会经济背景的影响？我将采用文化研究的方法进行研究，首先关注创造性劳动。典型的研究重点是女权主义以及女性在不稳定的就业市场和艺术领域工作的能力，这将作为我后来研究和采访案例研究的基础。我还将纳入对媒体如何被视为代表工人阶级的分析，这些分析来自于琼斯(2016)在Chavs等研究中分析了媒体如何使对工人阶级的看法永久化。我将把这一分析纳入我对制作过程的研究，以帮助理解这种感知如何在真人秀节目的镜头后表现出来。文化研究“最好地为分析文化与社会权力的关系提供了潜在的有价值的工具”(Hesmondhalgh，2018)。67页)。分析这种社会力量在我的研究中是先验性的，我将考虑谁的声音被听到以及他们是如何被感知的，特别是在电视行业工作的背景下。我将整理来自Ofcom、Talent Manager和Diamond等公司的现有数据，此外，信息自由请求(FOI)可能被认为有助于评估现有的关于劳动力的性别、种族和社会经济背景的数据。英国通信办公室最近的报告表明，电视界的女性人数正在下降(英国通信办公室，2019年)，近年来戴蒙德发现，女性明显缺乏高级创意角色7。这些统计数据将让我了解目前电视行业的构成，并将其与参与者采访中收集的数据进行比较，以了解工薪阶层女性的工作环境。为了收集这些信息，我将进行实地调查，采访电视行业的工薪阶层女性。我将采访40名工薪阶层女性，她们在过去5年里或曾经在英国的纪实节目中工作。我只会与直接参与节目制作的女性交谈--例如制片人、研究人员、生产管理角色--而不是其他职位--如人力资源或会计--我认为在这些职位上，就业和经验不会受到电视行业流程的如此独特的影响。我将与处于职业生涯不同阶段的女性交谈，以了解不同入门级和高管级别的经历有何不同，以及女性所处的阶段，如年龄或母亲身份，可能会产生影响其职业生涯的不同因素。我计划与每一位女性谈谈她们获得工作和晋升的经验，获得培训和同行发展的机会，以及她们为什么选择现在的工作。最后，我计划与这些女性谈谈她们认为自己是如何被感知的，以及她们在一部作品中扮演的角色，与她们如何看待周围男性的角色进行比较。在分析数据之前，我会记录并转录每一次采访。我可能会使用分析工具，如NVivo或其他定性数据管理程序。这将帮助我组织大量的信息，并在参与者的经历中找到主题或模式。

The aim of this research, and the original contribution to knowledge offered by this projectis to understand the impact of class and gender on the roles that working-class womenplay in the UK factual television industry.My research questions are:What role do gender and class politics play in efforts by working-class women to enter theUK television industry, and their efforts to build careers there? How are working-classwomen's careers shaped by their gender and socioeconomic background?I will be taking a cultural studies approach to my research, firstly looking at creative labour.Typically studies focus on feminism and the ability of women to work in precarious jobmarkets and within the arts, this will serve as a foundation for my later research andinterviewing of case studies. I will also incorporate analysis of how the media is seen torepresent the working class from studies such as Chavs in which Jones (2016) analyseshow the media perpetuates perceptions of the working class. I will incorporate this analysisinto my research on the production process to assist in understanding how suchperceptions may manifest behind camera within factual television.Cultural studies 'at its best [offers] potentially valuable tools for the analysis of culture inrelation to social power' (Hesmondhalgh, 2018. p67). Analysing this social power is apriority in my study, where I will consider whose voices are heard and how they areperceived, specifically in the context of those working in the television industry.I will collate existing data from companies such as Ofcom, Talent manager and Diamond,additionally Freedom of Information requests (FOIs) may be considered beneficial in orderto assess existing data on the sex, race and socio-economic backgrounds of theworkforce. Recent reports from Ofcom suggest that the number of women in television isdeclining (Ofcom, 2019) and in recent years Diamond have 6 found that women aredistinctly absent from senior creative roles7. These statistics will give me an understandingof the makeup of the industry as it currently stands and can then be compared with datagathered in participant interviews to understand the landscape working-class women areworking within.To gather this information I will carry out fieldwork interviewing working-class women in thetelevision industry. I will interview 40 working-class women who work or have worked inthe last 5 years in UK Factual programming. I will speak only with women directly involvedwith programme making - Producers, Researchers, Production Management roles forexample - rather than other positions - such as HR or Accounts - in which I feelemployment and experiences will not be so uniquely impacted by the processes of thetelevision industry. I will speak to women at various stages of their careers in order tounderstand how experiences may differ from entry level to executive level as well as how awoman's stage in life, such as her age or motherhood status may create different factorsthat impact her career. I plan to speak with each of the women about their experiencesgaining work and promotions, access to training and peer to peer development and whythey have chosen the job they have. Finally I plan to speak to the women about how theybelieve they are perceived and the roles they play within a production, compared to howthey perceive the roles of the men around them. I will record and transcribe each of theseinterviews before analysing the data. I will likely use an analysis tool such as Nvivo orother qualitative data management programme. This will help me organise large amountsof information and find themes or patterns in participants experiences.